Print to eBook Conversion

ABSTRACT

A method and computer system for providing digital content of a print work. A request is received from a sending computer by a recording entity for the recording entity to generate a digital copy of the print work, wherein the digital copy is substantially similar to the print work. The request includes a unique identification of the print work and verification that both ownership of the print work by the print work&#39;s owner and disablement of the print work have been recorded. In response to having received the request, the recording entity generates the digital copy and a unique identifier of the digital copy which associates the digital copy with the unique identification of the print work. The digital copy and the unique identifier of the digital copy is transmitted to the sending computer.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional application claiming priority to Ser.No. 14/250,756, filed Apr. 11, 2014, which claims priority toProvisional No. 61/964,362, filed on Jan. 2, 2014, which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention pertains to ownership, disablement, and digitalrendering of a periodical, a book or other manuscript or other literarywork.

BACKGROUND

A large number of physical books exist whose owners have purchased them,and by means of that purchase, royalties due authors have been paid.Many of these books are stored and no longer used by their owners, aredonated, or discarded. Still others are sold as used to others with noroyalty due the author under the legal principle of copyrightexhaustion. Under this principle, the digital rendition of a specificphysical book that can no longer be used may be legally eligible forloan or resale to another user since the content, not the physicalexistence of a print book, is the substance of the copyright.

Some e-books are produced simultaneously with the production of aprinted format, as described in electronic publishing, though in manyinstances they may not be put on sale until later. Often, e-books areproduced from pre-existing hard-copy books, generally by documentscanning, sometimes with the use of robotic book scanners, having thetechnology to quickly scan books without damaging the original printedition. Scanning a book produces a set of image files, which mayadditionally be converted into text format by an Optical CharacterRecognition (OCR) program. Occasionally, as in some e-text projects, abook may be produced by re-entering the text from a keyboard.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) mechanisms may be employed to preventsuch digital renditions from being shared or copied among end-users. Asecondary market which allows users to effectively and legally transfer“used” digital objects to others while maintaining scarcity is beyondscope of this invention and is addressed by pending and allowed patents.A “used” digital object is one which at inception was digital in form insuch context.

As use of digital objects increases, users may wish to transfer thedigital objects to other users. These transfers may include a sale, arental, a gift, a loan, a trade, a sale of digital rendition rights etc.However, several problems manifest when transferring a digital object.While a physical object such as a copy of a paperback book only existsin one place at a time, easy and inexpensive copies of a digital objectwithout loss of fidelity are possible. Thus, easy copying and repeatedsale of the same digital object is possible, potentially eliminatingscarcity of the digital object. Because of this, many owners implementdigital rights management to prevent such impermissible transfers.Furthermore, the digital object as originally transferred to the initialpurchaser may have license restrictions or other limitations onpermissible use or further transfer. For example, a license to use afree download of a popular song may expire after a few days.

A secondary market which allows users to effectively and permissiblytransfer “used” digital objects, or digital renditions of used printobjects, to others while maintaining scarcity is therefore desired. A“used” digital object is one to which a user has legitimately obtainedaccess or ownership rights (hereinafter “access rights”), and to whichthe user may permissibly transfer to another user.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The present invention provides a method for processing a print work,said method comprising:

recording, by one or more processors in one or more computer readablehardware storage units, a first entity's ownership of a print work thatis lawfully owned by the first entity, said print work being a physicalcopy of an original copyrighted work in a literary work category forwhich copyright protection is provided to a second entity under UnitedStates or foreign copyright law, subject to a limitation that thephysical copy is fixed in a physically tangible form that is anon-electronic form and a non-digital form, said print copy being undercopyright protection for the second entity that owns a copyright for anoriginal work from which the print work was generated, said first andsecond entities being different entities;

recording, by the one or more processors in the one or more hardwarestorage units, a disablement of the print work, said disablement leavingthe print work in a reversible state of disablement or in anirreversible state of disablement in which the print work is unusable asa work for which the copyright exists;

after said recording both the ownership and the disablement of the printwork and while the state of disablement exists, generating or receiving,by the one or more processors, a digital copy of the original work, saiddigital copy and the print work being substantially similar copies ofthe original work aside from the digital copy being in a digital format;and

after initiation of said generating or receiving the digital copy: (i)generating, by the one or more processors, a digital association linkingthe digital copy with both the recorded ownership and the recordeddisablement; and (ii) recording, by the one or more processors, thedigital association in the digital copy and/or in the one or morehardware storage units.

The present invention provides a computer program product, comprisingone or more computer readable hardware storage devices having a computerreadable program code stored therein, said program code containinginstructions which, upon being executed by one or more processors of acomputer system, implement a method for processing a print work, saidmethod comprising:

recording, by the one or more processors in one or more computerreadable hardware storage units, a first entity's ownership of a printwork that is lawfully owned by the first entity, said print work being aphysical copy of an original copyrighted work in a literary workcategory for which copyright protection is provided to a second entityunder United States or foreign copyright law, subject to a limitationthat the physical copy is fixed in a physically tangible form that is anon-electronic form and a non-digital form, said print copy being undercopyright protection for the second entity that owns a copyright for anoriginal work from which the print work was generated, said first andsecond entities being different entities;

recording, by the one or more processors in the one or more hardwarestorage units, a disablement of the print work, said disablement leavingthe print work in a reversible state of disablement or in anirreversible state of disablement in which the print work is unusable asa work for which the copyright exists;

after said recording both the ownership and the disablement of the printwork and while the state of disablement exists, generating or receiving,by the one or more processors, a digital copy of the original work, saiddigital copy and the print work being substantially similar copies ofthe original work aside from the digital copy being in a digital format;and

after initiation of said generating or receiving the digital copy: (i)generating, by the one or more processors, a digital association linkingthe digital copy with both the recorded ownership and the recordeddisablement; and (ii) recording, by the one or more processors, thedigital association in the digital copy and/or in the one or morehardware storage units.

The present invention provides a method for providing digital content ofa print work, said method comprising:

receiving, from a sending computer by one or more processors of arecording entity, a request for the recording entity to generate adigital copy of the print work, wherein the request includes a uniqueidentification of the print work and verification that both ownership ofthe print work by the print work's owner and disablement of the printwork have been recorded;

in response to said receiving the request, generating, by the one ormore processors, the digital copy and a unique identifier of the digitalcopy which associates the digital copy with the unique identification ofthe print work; and

transmitting, by the one or more processors, the digital copy and theunique identifier of the digital copy to the sending computer.

The present invention provides a computer system comprising one or moreprocessors, one or more memories coupled to the one or more processors,and one or more computer hardware readable storage device coupled to theprocessor, said one or more storage devices containing program codewhich, upon being executed by the one or more processors via the one ormore memories, implement a method for providing digital content of aprint work, said method comprising:

receiving, from a sending computer by the one or more processors of arecording entity, a request for the recording entity to generate adigital copy of the print work, wherein the digital copy issubstantially similar to the print work, wherein the request includes aunique identification of the print work and verification that bothownership of the print work by the print work's owner and disablement ofthe print work have been recorded;

in response to said receiving the request, generating, by the one ormore processors, the digital copy and a unique identifier of the digitalcopy which associates the digital copy with the unique identification ofthe print work; and

transmitting, by the one or more processors, the digital copy and theunique identifier of the digital copy to the sending computer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an embodiment of a method of providing for sale or loan adigital rendition of a physical print work, in accordance withembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart describing a method for processing a print work,in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart describing a method for providing digital contentof a print work, in accordance with embodiments of the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 illustrates a computer system used for implementing the methodsof the present invention, in accordance with the embodiments of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This patent application claims the benefits of all copyright laws and isdeemed as copyrighted as of the filing date. All rights reserved.

The present invention provides computerized program code or softwarestored in one or more hardware storage devices, and a process and methodimplemented by the program code, for enabling provision of digitalrenditions of a print work, such as a book or other manuscript, whilemaintaining a pair relationship between at least one print work disabledfrom further use and a specific digital rendition of some or all of thecontent of that print work. A digital rendering of a print workcomprises an act of generating a digital copy of the print work. Thus, adigital rendition of a print work is a digital copy of the print work. Aprint work is defined herein as a discrete physical copy of an originalcopyrighted work in a literary work category for which copyrightprotection is provided under United States or foreign copyright law,subject to a limitation that the physical copy is fixed in a physicallytangible form that is a non-electronic form and a non-digital form.

The phrase “physical item” is defined herein as the aforementionedphysical copy of an original work in a literary work category for whichcopyright protection is provided under United States or foreigncopyright law, subject to a limitation that the physical item (i.e.,physical copy) is fixed in a physically tangible form that is anon-electronic form and a non-digital form.

Foreign copyright law is defined herein as copyright law of a legaljurisdiction outside of the legal jurisdiction of the United States.Foreign copyright law may include, inter alia, copyright law of aforeign country (e.g., France, Japan, Canada, etc.) outside of theUnited States or of a union of countries (e.g., European Union) outsideof the United States.

A digital rendition of a print work may be created. In one embodiment,the present invention facilitates the digital rendition resale, tradingloaning or giving of the copyrighted content of a print work providedthat the owner of the print work can first no longer use that print workand has not sold and cannot sell or otherwise transfer the print work,and copyright royalties associated with the print work have been paid.Said method comprises the steps of archiving an instance of ownership ofa print work; and archiving the disabling means that disables the printwork prior to making a digital rendition of the print work which ensuresthat said print work cannot and will not be used, sold or transferredafter the disablement which occurs prior to making the digital renditionof the print work. A one-to-one association is thus maintained between aprint work and digital rendition of substantially the same copyrightedcontent of the print work while assuring one and only one version of thecopyright paid content is usable at the same time. A unique identifierof said association of said rendered digital copy of said print work andsaid print work may be created and registered in a database in one ormore hardware storage devices which may be referenced by other partiesto ensure that the pair relationship is maintained without duplicatedigital rendering taking place with reference to the same print work; orsaid association may be embedded in the digital rendition and amendedwith each subsequent transaction associated with the digital rendition.Further, a means of transferring a right to offer for sale or loan of adigital rendition of a print work owned by a first party to anotherparty may be effected, said means of transferring the right comprising:the process of the first party providing a digital verification of anowned print work that may be assumed to have been purchased and havetriggered a copyright royalty payment to the author; an affidavit orarchived disablement evidence ensuring no further ability to use saidwork, such as an affidavit of destruction, an agreement to grant thesecond party a right or the exclusive right to sell or loan the digitalrendition of said work, and a potential fee or revenue-sharing agreementand mechanism. Said right transfer pertains to a process that mayinclude the step of a provider of said right registering in a databaseand further registering the assignment of said right to said specificprint work thus enabling documentation of the transfer of said rightwhich may be accessed by outside parties. The invention differs fromprevious inventions which describe means of creating a market forcontent that began as digital content, not as content of a print work.

The present invention provides a novel process for selling or loaningdigital renditions of previously purchased print works. This processinvolves steps of maintaining a one to one correspondence between such adigital rendition and the specific or substantially identical previouslyused or purchased print work from which the digital rendition isderived; and the further step of first assuring that the specific printwork can no longer be used prior to, during, and after the existence ofthe digital rendition and its commercial offer. This latter step maycomprise a legally adequate record of ownership; which may be digital(an image and other record of an instance of ownership) or physical suchas retention and sequestering of all or part of a physical book; and arecord of sequestering or destruction of the print work thus preventingfuture use.

With the present invention, one or more networks, using one or morecomputing devices, are provided and are operatively configured forallowing authorized access to (or ownership) of a digital content itemto be transferred from one user to another wherein the digital item is arendition of a print work; wherein a one to one correspondence ismaintained between the digital content item and the print work; thephysical item is first disabled for use and records of these steps aregenerated and maintained. A first user purchases, leases, or trades adigital content item, such as a digital book, from an online store oranother user, wherein said digital book is a rendition associated with aspecific print work, such as a document, that is disabled from furtheruse or resale. Records of ownership are maintained of the physical bookand its associated digital rendition, the disabling of the physicalbook, and future resales of the digital item wherein the online store orpublic registry, or metadata embedded in the rendition determineswhether one or more criteria are satisfied in order to allow thetransfer in ownership to take place. If the one or more criteria aresatisfied, which criteria may include validation of prior ownership andprior disablement of a print work associated with a digital rendition,and generation and recordation of a digital association linking thedigital rendition with prior ownership and the prior disablement, thenthe online store or transfer mechanism stores data that reflects thetransaction and updates authorization data that authorizes a second userpurchasing, leasing, borrowing, or obtaining a right to said digitalrendition to access the digital content item and prevents the first orproviding user from accessing the digital content item. Alternatively,instead of a third party determining whether one or more criteria aresatisfied, the first (or second) user's device makes the determinationand may be responsible for preventing the first user's device fromfurther consuming the digital content item. In some embodiments, theonline store and/or the publisher of the digital content item mayreceive a portion of the proceeds of the transfer.

In one embodiment, print works such as books are identified by automatedor manual means such as by scanning of product codes or matching ofimages, dimensions or weights sufficient to identify a specific editionof a print work, or a manual process involving entry of an identifyingproduct code or title to determine the edition and identity of a printwork such as a title and edition, author, publication year, ISBN. Rulesdetermine if the print work should, instead of being sold in physicalform, be offered for sale, loan, or freely in the form of digitalrendition.

FIG. 1 depicts an embodiment of a method of providing for sale or loan adigital rendition of a physical print work, in accordance withembodiments of the present invention. The method of FIG. 1 maintains adirect or indirect pair relationship between a specific or identicalphysical version and a digital rendition, of at least one physical copyinstance of ownership and the digital rendition wherein further use ofthe at least one physical copy associated with the digital rendition isfurther rendered unusable prior to the initiation of existence of thedigital rendition. The maintained pair relationship assures that forevery digital rendition, at least one print work of substantiallyidentical content has been owned and effectively disabled from furtheruse, sale or lease.

A fingerprint process (“fingerprinting”) of the print work isimplemented by an entity possessing the print work. The fingerprintingmay be implemented either manually or through automation such as via adigital scanning system configured on a conveyor, to generate afingerprint of the print work which is a unique attribute of the printwork that uniquely identifies the print work. The print work may bescanned (step 101) which scan may be of a product code such as a barcode or Radio-frequency Identification (RFID), an OCR (optical characterrecognition) of an ISBN number, an image recognition of a uniqueattribute of the print work such as a cover, or manual research of thebook. A record of this fingerprinting is archived (step 102) in acomputer readable hardware storage device which fingerprinting and thearchived record may be uniquely identified with information such as nameof the owner entity, date, time, location, item of machinery employedand evidence of the fingerprinting of the print work which may bedigital photographic in nature and may further include a uniqueidentifying code generated to identify the fingerprinting. Decisionrules (step 103) may be employed which determine that the fingerprintingwill be reserved for a pairing with a digital rendition of the contentof the print work, which rendition may be offered for sale or loan.Furthermore, steps may be taken which effectively disable further use ofthe print work (step 104) which may comprise partial or totaldestruction, sequestration or other disablement means of the print work.The archive or disablement of the print work may be physical wherein allor part of the print work may be defaced or destroyed physically thusdisabling future use of the print work. All or part of the print workmay be stored physically or digitally wherein a digital-only record ofthe fingerprinting is stored and disablement of the print work ismaintained by digital sequester. Further evidence of destruction of theprint work may be provided and archived which may include a relegationof the print work to sale to a paper pulp company operating under anaffidavit of destruction of print matter that the company receives.

The archived fingerprinting of the print work and a record ofdisablement of the print work is written to a database in one or morehardware storage devices which may be a public database. A digitalrendition may be subsequently acquired (i.e., generated by the party whoscanned the print work or obtained from another party) (step 105) whichmay be a copy from a digital master and may include DRM (digital rightsmanagement protection) and a unique identifier (ID) which identifies anassociation of the digital rendition with the fingerprint of the printwork. The ID of the digital rendition and/or of the association may belinked to the digital record of the fingerprinting of the print work andwritten to the database. All further transactions involving the digitalrendition such as transfers of ownership may be written and tracked in adatabase or embedded in the digital rendition so that the history of therendered digital item is traceable.

The digital rendition tied to the print fingerprinting may be offeredfor sale, loan or free (step 106). Future transactions involving thedigital rendition may be written to and tracked through the databasewhich may be a public secure database.

A variation of the embodiment may involve the use of a smart device by aprint work owner who uses the smart device to document and archive theownership by the owner and disablement of said print work in preparationfor an offer for sale or loan of a digital rendition of said print workeither by that owner or by transfer of this right to another party. Theowner may follow a process similar to steps 101-107 and engage theservices of a digital rendering provider of a single DRM-protecteddigital copy of his disabled print work which the user may then post forsale on an ecommerce store or peer-to-peer. The digital renderingprovider may require a review of the owner's archive of the evidence ofownership and disablement of the print work prior to providing a digitalrendering of the print work.

Alternatively, the owner may provide the archive of his print work andthe rights to the offering for sale of the digital rendering to anotherparty (step 107) in exchange for a fee or share of revenue; which otherparty may in turn follow a similar process as described here to obtainand offer a digital rendering of the print archive of the owner.Scarcity of said right (the existence of one and only one digitalrendering associated with a specific archive of a specific disabledprint work and potentially the existence of only one owner's right toaccess said digital rendering) and rendering may be documented bywriting all associated transactions to said public database (step 104)thus maintaining the one-to-one association of a specific print work toits digital rendering and all future transfers of ownership of saidrendering. Alternatively, all metadata concerning the genesis andtransaction history of such a digital rendering may be embedded andappended within the rendering itself.

Instead of transferring an instance of the digital rendition or dataitem to a device, the content access metadata, that indicates thatdigital content item is owned by end-user A, may be updated to indicatethat (a) end-user B is authorized to access said digital content item,and (b) end-user A no longer is authorized to access said digitalrendition or content item. Any mechanism for indicating who isauthorized (or not) to access the digital content item may be used.Based on the updated content access metadata, an intermediary entity mayprevent end-user A from further accessing said digital content itemafter the transfer has been completed from user A to user B.Transactional updating of digital rendition metadata may be accomplishedby any involved device including that of an intermediary or user A or B.

The digital rendering may be made by the processing of digital scanningof a print work or the obtaining of an original digital master from apublisher or copies thereof. The digital rendering may also be providedby another party which has performed said digital scanning of a printwork. In exchange for the provision of a digital rendition by anotherparty, the first party may present digital archive evidence of bothownership and disablement of at least one instance of a print work.

The present invention provides embodiments in which a process, some orall of which may be digital, of archiving or documenting ownership of aprint work, which may be a specific print work, and associating thatownership with evidence of disablement from further use of that printwork. These embodiments depict alternative methods of fingerprinting(i.e., uniquely identifying) a print work and include a product codescan such as a barcode sufficient to identify a specific print workversion for example by author, title, binding, edition, etc.; animage-based identification, such as a cover image, which may furtherinclude matching other attributes such as weight and dimensions of aprint work sufficient to uniquely identify a specific version or amanual identification which may involve visual inspection and titlesearch which may involve a computer system. Furthermore, a print workmay be selected from previously known inventory for sale as a digitalrendition through use of business rules. Business rules may be appliedto an identified print work, which business rules may indicate thatcommercialization as a digital rendition is desirable. Thereupon, a formof disablement of the specific or like print work from future use as aprint work may be performed, which may be effected by segregation fromfuture sale and use or whole or partial destruction.

An archiving may be performed, in any sequence, of both the ownershipinstance and disablement of the print work which archive may be in oneor more places including one or more databases or the digital renditionitself. The archive may be digital. Furthermore, the archive may beinternal to the entity performing the steps, or public, such as a publicregistry. The steps of archiving may involve unique identifiers of oneor more of the instance of ownership and disablement. These identifiersmay include the name of the entity owning the print work, circumstance,location and date of ownership, such as a specific time, date, addressand equipment used, and may be digitally photographic in nature.Likewise, the disablement step may include such data and means.

The present invention provides embodiments of a process for digitalrendition of a print work whose ownership and disablement are associatedwith a the digital rendition. Steps in these embodiments may be taken byone or more parties. For example, steps may be taken by a first partyhaving a digital master containing some or all of the content of a printwork designated for digital rendition sale. Or, another party inpossession of a digital master may make a copy, which may be protectedby a form of DRM or digital rights management, and provide it to thefirst party. The digital master may be obtained by digitally scanning aprint work and formatting may be applied to achieve desired contentformat and visual appearance or metadata tagging of portions of content.The party fingerprinting the print work may also temporarily transfer aright to the party providing a digital rendering in order to satisfy anycopyright stipulation that only the party having the right stemming fromlawful ownership of a disabled print work may make a digital renderingof the print work.

An archive may contain related metadata such as identifying informationabout the entity performing the archive, date and time, location, meansused such as manual processing or automated processing equipment, dataor image records of print work disablement such as physical deformity,sequestering in storage and barred from sale or disposition as pulp. Themetadata may be placed in the archive via, inter alia, a smart device(e.g., a smart phone) used by an individual.

An archived record of ownership and disablement of a print work may bepresented by a first party to another party whereupon that other partyprovides the first party a digital rendition of at least substantiallyall of the content of said print, which rendition may be DRM protected.Either party may embed the digital rendition with unique identifyingmetadata and metadata relating to the archive of the print work; and/oreither party may register in a registry, such as a public database, aunique identifier of the digital rendition and a unique identifier of anassociation of the digital rendition to the archived identifier of theprint work. Thus, the association of the digital rendition and printwork is maintained. Either party may register in a registry via, interalia, a smart device (e.g., a smart phone) used by an individual.

The digital rendition may then be offered for sale by the first partyvia, inter alia, a smart device (e.g., a smart phone) used by anindividual. The digital rendition may be DRM protected in one embodimentafter generation of an embedded and/or public archive of the prior printcopy's lawful ownership and disablement.

It should be noted that the steps in the steps in the precedingembodiment may be performed in any sequence, and not necessarily in thesequence described supra. The embodiments allow transactions betweencontent rights holders and buyers as well as for a centralized store ofrights and content. Authorized access to digital content, otherwiseknown as digital rights, may be transferred from one user to another. Asan example, a first user may purchase an e-book from the AppleiBookstore and later decide to sell that content of the e-book to asecond user. The first user notifies the store that they want to sellthe item, and if certain criteria are met, the first user is allowed totransfer rights to the second buyer. Content itself may or may notchange hands, but more importantly the rights attached to said contentis managed so that the first user can no longer access the content onceit is sold.

The present disclosure is novel over prior art, by maintaining aone-to-one association between an owned print work wherein copyrightroyalties have plausibly been previously paid through purchase of saidprint work and a digital rendition of said print work content which maybe offered for sale, loaned, or provided free, and by furtherdocumenting the disabling from further use of said print work and themetadata tracking of future transactions involving the rendered digitalitem.

A further provision may be made for a public database repository of saidone to one associations of a print work and its digital renditionwherein a historic transaction record is maintained and is publicallyaccessible for verification that the original print work existed, whothe owner was, that is disabled from further use, and the specificidentification of a single associated digital rendition which may befurther DRM-enabled to prevent copying. A further record of futurere-sales or other transfers of ownership right of the digital renditionmay be maintained in said repository.

In a still further embodiment, a pool of disabled print works may bemaintained either physically or in the form of digital documentation ofownership and destruction which back an up to exact number of digitalrenditions of said pool of specific print works; wherein the digitalrenditions may be offered for sale in a quantity up to and equal to thesaid pool of disabled print works.

Prior art describes methods of offering for sale, loan or freely workswhich began existence in digital, not print form. Copyright lawcompliance is not addressed by the prior art from the combined viewpointof a print work and its digital rendition. An automated means is notprovided to document instances of print ownership, association with adigital rendition of said print work, or a database repository, whichmay be public, of all transaction history associated with a disabledprint work serving as the basis for transactions involving its digitalrendition.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart describing a method for processing a print work,in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 2comprises steps 201-204.

Step 201 records a first entity's ownership of a print work in one ormore computer readable hardware storage units. The print work islawfully owned by the first entity. The print work is a physical copy ofan original copyrighted work in a literary work category for whichcopyright protection is provided to a second entity under United Statesor foreign copyright law, subject to a limitation that the physical copyis fixed in a physically tangible form that is a non-electronic form anda non-digital form. The print work is under copyright protection for thesecond entity that owns a copyright for an original work from which theprint work was generated. The first and second entities are differententities. The first entity and the second entity may each be one or moreindividuals or one or more organizations such as, inter alia, a businessorganization (e.g., a sole proprietorship, a corporation, etc.), asocial organization, an educational organization, a labor union, etc.

Step 202 records a disablement of the print work in the one or morehardware storage units. The disablement of the print work leaves theprint work in a reversible state of disablement or in an irreversiblestate of disablement in which the print work is unusable as a work forwhich the copyright exist.

In one embodiment, the disablement is a physical destruction of theprint work, which leaves the print work in an irreversible state ofdisablement.

In one embodiment, the disablement is a physical sequester of the printwork that physically isolates the print work from being physicallyaccessible, which leaves the print work in a reversible state ofdisablement.

After the ownership has been recorded in step 201 and the disablement ofthe print work ownership has been recorded in step 202 and while thestate of disablement of the print work exists, step 203 acquires adigital copy of the original work.

In one embodiment, acquiring the digital copy comprises generating thedigital copy (e.g., by the first entity).

In one embodiment, acquiring the digital copy comprises receiving thedigital copy (e.g., by the first entity) from a third entity in responseto a request for the digital copy made by the first entity to the thirdentity, wherein the request includes a unique identification of theprint work and verification that both the ownership and the disablementof the print work have been recorded. The third entity may be one ormore individuals or one or more organizations such as, inter alia, abusiness organization (e.g., a sole proprietorship, a corporation,etc.), a social organization, an educational organization, a laborunion, etc.

The digital copy and the print work are may be substantially similarcopies of the original work aside from the digital copy being in adigital format.

In one embodiment, the digital copy is not generated from the disabledprint work. After the acquiring of the digital copy is initiated in step203, step 204: (i) generates a digital association linking the digitalcopy with both the recorded ownership and the recorded disablement; and(ii) records the digital association in the digital copy and/or in theone or more hardware storage units.

In one embodiment, the digital association is generated beforecompletion of generating the digital copy.

In one embodiment, the digital association is generated after completionof generating the digital copy.

In one embodiment, after the digital copy has been generated and whilethe state of disablement of the print work exists, content may be sentto one or more destination computers. The content may include an offerfor, an advertisement of the offer for, and/or information relating to:purchasing the digital copy from the first entity, leasing the digitalcopy from the first entity, trading with the first entity for thedigital copy, and/or purchasing from the first entity a right to sellthe digital copy.

In one embodiment, the disabled print work is included in a pool of Nsubstantially similar disabled print works: (i) which were generatedfrom the original work, (ii) the ownership and disablement of which havebeen recorded in the one or more hardware storage devices, and (iii)from which N respective digital copies have been made, wherein N is atleast 2. Moreover, while the N print works are disabled and after the Nrespective digital copies were generated, content is sent to one or moredestination computers. The content may include an offer for,advertisement of said offer for, and/or information relating to:purchasing M digital copies of the N respective digital copies, leasingthe M digital copies, trading for the M digital copies, and/orpurchasing a right to sell the M digital copies, wherein M does notexceed N.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart describing a method for providing digital contentof a print work, in accordance with embodiments of the presentinvention. FIG. 3 comprises steps 301-303.

In step 301, a recording entity receives, from a sending computer, arequest for the recording entity to generate a digital copy of the printwork. The request includes a unique identification of the print work andverification that both ownership of the print work by the print work'sowner and disablement of the print work have been recorded.

The recording entity may be one or more individuals or one or moreorganizations such as, inter alia, a business organization (e.g., a soleproprietorship, a corporation, etc.), a social organization, aneducational organization, a labor union, etc.

In step 302 in response to receiving the request, the recording entitygenerates the digital copy and a unique identifier of the digital copywhich associates the digital copy with the unique identification of theprint work.

In step 303, the digital copy and the unique identifier of the digitalcopy are transmitted to the sending computer.

In one embodiment, the digital copy is protected by a Digital RightsManagement (DRM) mechanism.

These embodiments may involve networks that may be any type ofcommunication network, including the Internet, a local area network, awide area network, a wireless wide area network, a cable televisionnetwork, a wireless network, a telephone network, etc. The networkallows communicative coupling between electronic devices and servers,such as network resource server.

Electronic devices may include a personal computer, an entertainmentsystem, a personal digital assistant (PDA) or other computing devicethat is capable of communicating over a network, including but notlimited to, set-top boxes, mobile phones, smart phones, digital mediaplayers, tablets, laptop computers, desktop computers, electronic bookreaders, game consoles, servers, etc.

Network resource server may be either a single server or a largercollection of servers, such as a data center or multiple data centers.Network resource server may include one or more processors and a memory,the memory comprising one or more computer-readable storage media(CRSM). The CRSM may include, but is not limited to, random accessmemory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmableread-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other solid-state memorytechnology, compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), digital versatiledisks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetictape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or anyother medium which can be used to store the desired information andwhich can be accessed by a processor. The processor is configured toexecute instructions stored in the memory. A computer system depicted inFIG. 4 may comprise the network resource server.

FIG. 4 illustrates a computer system used for implementing methods ofthe present invention, in accordance with the embodiments of the presentinvention. The computer system 90 comprises a processor 91, an inputdevice 92 coupled to the processor 91, an output device 93 coupled tothe processor 91, and memory devices 94 and 95 each coupled to theprocessor 91. The input device 92 may be, inter alia, a keyboard, amouse, a keypad, a touch screen, a scanner, a voice recognition device,a sensor, a network interface card (NIC), a Voice/video over InternetProtocol (VOIP) adapter, a wireless adapter, a telephone adapter, adedicated circuit adapter, etc. The output device 93 may be, inter alia,a printer, a plotter, a computer screen, a magnetic tape, a removablehard disk, a floppy disk, a NIC, a VOIP adapter, a wireless adapter, atelephone adapter, a dedicated circuit adapter, an audio and/or visualsignal generator, a light emitting diode (LED), etc. The memory devices94 and 95 may be, inter alia, a hard disk, a floppy disk, a magnetictape, an optical storage such as a compact disc (CD) or a digital videodisc (DVD), a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a read-only memory(ROM), etc. The memory device 95 includes computer program code 97 whichis a computer program that comprises computer-executable instructions.The program code 97 includes software or program instructions that mayimplement methods of the present invention. The processor 91 executesthe program code 97. The memory device 94 includes input data 96. Theinput data 96 includes input required by the program code 97. The outputdevice 93 displays output from the program code 97. Either or bothmemory devices 94 and 95 (or one or more additional memory devices notshown in FIG. 4) may be used as a computer readable storage medium ordevice (or program storage device) having a computer readable programembodied therein and/or having other data stored therein, wherein thecomputer readable program comprises the program code 97. Generally, acomputer program product (or, alternatively, an article of manufacture)of the computer system 90 may comprise said computer readable storagemedium (or said program storage device). A computer readable storagedevice of the present invention, when storing the program code 97 forexecution by one or more processors, is not a transmission medium suchas a copper transmission cable, an optical transmission fiber, or awireless transmission medium.

While FIG. 4 shows the computer system 90 as a particular configurationof hardware and software, any configuration of hardware and software, aswould be known to a person of ordinary skill in the art, may be utilizedfor the purposes stated supra in conjunction with the particularcomputer system 90 of FIG. 4. For example, the memory devices 94 and 95may be portions of a single memory device rather than separate memorydevices. As another example, the processor 91 may represent one or moreprocessors, and each memory device of memory devices 94 and 95 mayrepresent one or more memory devices and/or one or more computerreadable storage devices.

The forgoing embodiments are only exemplary. It will be obvious to thoseskilled in the art that other variations are possible. It should beemphasized that many variations and modifications may be made to theabove-described embodiments, the elements of which are to be understoodas being among other acceptable examples. All such modifications andvariations are intended to be included herein within the scope of thisdisclosure and protected by its claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for providing digital content of a printwork, said method comprising: receiving, from a sending computer by oneor more processors of a recording entity, a request for the recordingentity to generate a digital copy of the print work, wherein the digitalcopy is substantially similar to the print work, wherein the requestincludes a unique identification of the print work and verification thatboth ownership of the print work by the print work's owner anddisablement of the print work have been recorded; in response to saidreceiving the request, generating, by the one or more processors, thedigital copy and a unique identifier of the digital copy whichassociates the digital copy with the unique identification of the printwork; and transmitting, by the one or more processors, the digital copyand the unique identifier of the digital copy to the sending computer.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the digital copy is protected by aDigital Rights Management (DRM) mechanism.
 3. A computer systemcomprising one or more processors, one or more memories coupled to theone or more processors, and one or more computer hardware readablestorage devices coupled to the processor, said one or more storagedevices containing program code which, upon being executed by the one ormore processors via the one or more memories, implement a method forproviding digital content of a print work, said method comprising:receiving, from a sending computer by the one or more processors of arecording entity, a request for the recording entity to generate adigital copy of the print work, wherein the request includes a uniqueidentification of the print work and verification that both ownership ofthe print work by the print work's owner and disablement of the printwork have been recorded; in response to said receiving the request,generating, by the one or more processors, the digital copy and a uniqueidentifier of the digital copy which associates the digital copy withthe unique identification of the print work; and transmitting, by theone or more processors, the digital copy and the unique identifier ofthe digital copy to the sending computer.
 4. The computer system ofclaim 3, wherein the digital copy is protected by a Digital RightsManagement (DRM) mechanism.